making wine, wineries and social media

Its clear everyone wants to have the ability to tweet when they want to, to post some amazing picture they suddenly took and posted on facebook when they had a moment. They would like to be on Google + too, but only if someone else does it for them.

But then, when they do post something on facebook occasionally, its often ignored and seems lost in space. This feeds the idea that it's a waste of time.

So After a series of workshops I have run with companies and individuals across Europe, here are my thoughts for wineries or winemarketers

Imagine you plant a vineyard.

1. You dont pay much attention to how you lay it out.

2. You just go and find whatever cuttings are going cheap at the vine consorsio.

3. You find a piece of land that someone suggests is empty but holds vast potential.

4. And you plant without consulting an expert consultant.

5. You want great results and a fantastic vintage, but you dont want to invest too much.

6. You also decide you cant spend too much time on this.

7. While others are tending triming and nuturing their vines, adding and taking away for maximum yeild in the future, you just pretty much ignore yours, you boast you have a vineyard but you dont have too much time to waste.

8. Occasionally you take a drive out there to show some people your land and vines they seem convinced you know what your doing. You feel smug you are not like all those others out there, spending hours nurturing and fiddling with their vineyards.

10. When mildew comes you won't call in a consultant, no, thats a waste of money. Lets just wait and see.

  What kind of harvest do you think this vineyard will yeild?

When you try to sell the grapes or the wine and theres no one interested because you also thought you didn't need to market it in advance, will you be shocked? 

This is exactly the approach many people take to social media, they show up when they feel like it, ignore it when they dont, have no strategy, no plan of action.

Then when they need a response or they want to use it. They are surprised they have no audience.

We are living through an age when your response and planning to social media will determine your success or failure.

Thats it.

 http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2513487910/efblike

For a workshop programme in your area that will teach you the skills you need in one morning session, email Donna at amandini.ch  (at) gmail (dot) com and she will link you to events and workshops in your area.

BLOG IDENTITY CRISIS

I woke up yesterday to a standing start, went into my office, booted up my computer and realised as I was preparing to write my blog post, I could not write about one more start up, Tech wiz-kid, or Tech-meet.

I felt like the Grinch, and I was going up the mountain just in time for Christmas.

No, I had been covering Techcrunch 50s, Le Webs and just about every other Tech-infested corner of Europe and UK solidly for five years, I was done. Tech per se, had become as about exciting to me as warmed-over porridge.

Yes, I wanted to express myself about the people I meet in Tech, or out in the vineyards. I wanted to write about the crazy, wonderful, life I lead, meeting the people who inspire me, and interviewing them for fun, no angles.

Somewhere between the lastest apps and storage systems, between comparing twitter (which I adopted rather early pre @wisequeen) and facebook, between klout, posterous and "social media gurus"( my least favourite nom de plume) and gimmicky software : the juice had all been sucked out and what was left was a dried up orange half. Tech had become Tack.

I wanted to laugh, to poke fun at myself mostly, and also at some of the extraordinary others that I meet along the highways and byways of the Blogging/Tech superstrada.

So far it has been an amazing journey, meeting people face to face as diverse as Queen Rania of Jordan, and @ChrisBrogan (who this month I share workshop duties with in Berlin). People like @GaryVee who I hated watching online, until I got him, met him, traded jibes with, and grew to love.

New Yorkers like Elin McCoy, Ex LA girls like @missrogue Tara, winemakers, serial entrepreneurs like Nicolas Berg, Politicians the list goes on and on.

But I also write on wine, social media and branding of course and these remain my first loves. And I will cover those till my last withered finger drops off. This year Im speaking on wine+socialsharing in Porto, and then in Berlin on B2B and social tools.
I'm also so excited to be invited to cover the wine event of the year in #Paris

I am no technophobe, ask anyone, I was the first person around to buy an mac air, mac pro, iphone, a flip, a flop, a dropbox. But Oh Lord, spare me.

So tech may sneak in by the back door of all the apps and app makers I talk to daily, Tech may sneak in through the side door via the VC s, but I'm not taking it that seriously anymore, because I think its got a little narcissistic of late. Cest la vie

Queen of all she surveys,

Her Middleness

@wisequeen

Donna Jackson

Leave a comment if you care to, don't if you don't.

Marketing and networking web 2.0 to club or not to club

Last night when I was thinking about a Christmas party. I got to thinking about my days as a marketing manager and how events would be mailed out months in advance and posters put up. Then the long slow process of tickets being paid for and then nagging the lagging majority who had to be emailed for the tenth time to remind them. I remember how the benefits of the Chamber of Commerce and businessmen's clubs were so essential to businesses then. Things like tenders, medical aid, membership lists. These have all become seperate services online now and you can tender for a job as a freelancer or business and be paid online in minutes on twenty different sites. Through linkedin you can send them your resume, your client list your references in minutes. You can register, pay for and print your ticket to any conference or event anywhere in the world within minutes. You can even check out the speakers and watch videos of them in advance. Linkedin have just launched an events application. Then there's the launch of Zoopy - a social media community that makes the world a smaller place. So where does this leave those networking clubs like Rotary (who do admitedly also have charity, polio eradication and education exchange programmes to manage too) Chambers of Commerce, Businesswomen's clubs, Toastmasters etc. Who all now have websites sure. Will they be forced to adopt and join social media sites like twitter and facebook to keep up? I noticed Rotary already has a twitter account. I keep saying this because it's my job as a new media and web 2.0 evangelist, that companies and organizations will have to adopt or die, and I'm saying it again. Facebook has within it's millions of members clubs of every imaginable kind, and even those unimaginable. The news is reported and discussed in a moment now. Any disaster or travel advice is circulated between Twitter and Facebook users within seconds. So does this put people who sell this information out of business? Will people still read sector newsletters and look for recommendations from infomation services? Will marketing and PR managers be replaced by new media wizzes? Will there be no end to Facebook and Twitter growth? Hey even the WSJ newspaper had an article on twitter Want to tell us what you think, Have a burning question, or want to strongly disagree? You can do all that by sending us a comment. Wisequeen Donna Jackson Social Communications Specialist.